Trumpeter 1/200 USS Iowa

[johndon]

Thanks for the suggestion, it is appreciated.

John

[Fliger747]

Ah yes, the 40 mm ammo "wracks" (What it does to you). A different scale and different issue, but on my 1:120 APA I 3D printed the racks. Some I was smart enough to design with bottom spacing tabs. The one's that I didn't I used matchsticks to space them, then slid them out. One could use almost anything for that purpose.

1:200 is large enough to be able to see a lot of detail, and small enough to present challenges to execution!

Good Luck!

[johndon]

Thanks.

I'm going to finish and paint the turret 3 40mm tub to see how obvious the strip supports are, hopefully with the guns in place and possibly some figures, it won't be too bad. Then I'll see if it is an option for the others. As I mentioned, I think if the supports were as long as the racks and, as they are only .25mm they may not be quite so obvious as clearly, my skills aren't up to fitting them as designed...

[johndon]

XF-17 is more of an aircraft color, for example the upper blue for the observation plane. For deck blue, at least in my estimation, XF-50 Field Blue seems to work better; even then, you might want to cut it with a bit of white.

Some other folks here might have better suggestions.

Just wanted to say thanks again Sean, I got some XF50 today, sprayed the turret roofs and I'm much happier with the colour now.

John

[Goodwood]

Glad to hear it!

[Fliger747]

For those with a sense of adventure high flow Acrylics from Golden are available at your local art supply emporium. It takes a little fiddling, but one can make your own colors to match whatever reference you have. I have color chips and it works pretty well. Being 400 miles from the nearest hobby shop I'm at the end of a long supply chain. One can thin for airbrushing with acrylic thinner, alcohol or even water.

Enjoy your project! Tom

[johndon]

Thanks Tom.

I'm enjoying it so far but I suspect my patience may be tested as I'm about to embark on the lip round the top of the hull and a representation of the hull plating...

John

[johndon]

As per my last message, I'm looking at representing the lip at the top of hull along the edge of the deck.

I've read another thread (steinerman's perhaps) where he added a strip of styrene to the edge of the deck and then glued some wire to the top to represent the rounded lip. I didn't fancy my chances with that so thought I'd have a go at making the whole thing using styrene and here's a first go.

The strip is .25mm * .5mm with a .5mm round strip glues to the top. It gives, for me, a pretty good representation of what is needed, just need to make sure I can make around 8' of it and glue it all flush to the edge of the hull...

[Fliger747]

I did a 1:192 Scratch build of Missouri. For the hull lip I used fairly fine Piano wire, the actual lip is perhaps 2". It worked pretty well as it smoothly follows the shape of the hull lip. There are some available PE buttstraps that join the 60# shell plates by way of the citadel. For the fore and aft plating I used taping and application of a heavy build auto primer. There are various ways to accomplish this. At the time I didn't have sufficient data to do the below WL plating. Of course the biggest issue with the kit is the shape of the hull which needs modification both around the forefoot and especially aft where it is way too full below the WL. However that is major surgery, check out Hank Strubb's Vietnam Era New Jersey to see the trials and tribulations of this exercise.

I have recently gone back and added some 3D printed items (I just got into this) which are minor upgrades from my original efforts, 12" searchlights, deck binoculars, missile launchers and whatnot.

Keep up the good work! Tom

[johndon]

Thanks again Tom, I've read Hank's thread and I'm going to live with the the misshapen hull and I am going to go with the primer method for the plating. Whilst I am going to build the model full hull, I'm still undecided about whether to ultimately go for a sea base...

John

[johndon]

Insomnia has hit overnight so I figured I'd put my waking hours to good use. I've always figured that, as far as the PE goes, the aft crane and catapults were likely to be the hardest part of the build so I figured I may as well bite the bullet and get the crane done. Four hours and a lot of swearing later, it is done. I've not used all the Pontos parts, some of the internal bracing is missing either because I couldn't get it installed properly or because a couple of its came lose when I closed it up and there was no way to get them back in again. It is far from perfect but, overall, I'm happy with it...

As finished:



and with a quick coat of paint, a few small bit of work still needed...

[MartinJQuinn]

Cranes are tricky devils. Yours looks good!

[Triumph68]

looks good.... and it will help me with mine

[Fliger747]

Indeed nice job on the crane! It's a stick out item on the ship! Long journey, keep at it!

Cheers: Tom

[johndon]

Over 6 months after I last did any work, inspired by the purchase of the Anatomy of the Ship book for the Iowa, I've started again with the aft funnel. As always, the camera is rather cruel but I'm pleased with the way things are going so far...







And an overall view of where I am right now. Pontos decks are just placed on for now and the ship should, for the scheme I'm going for, have blue decks but I just like the natural wood look...



John

[Fliger747]

Monster big project! I've always liked the conning tower/walkway look the Iowas inherited from the SODAK's, looks very menacing and war like. I remember seeing "Mass" swinging at anchor in Sinclair Inlet, looking brooding and massively strong and her bridge was a big part of that look. The later Iowa's always looked more cruise ship like.

Keep up the good work! Tom

[johndon]

Thanks Tom,

This evening has seen a bit more work done on the funnel:

[Fliger747]

I always mangled PE....

[johndon]

I've been backwards and forwards over whether to try and represent the lip that ran all the way round the deck of the Iowa and, having read a few threads on here, decided it was worth doing. With particular thanks to Steinerman in his thread, I've made a start by adding .25mm * .75mm strip alone the starboard side - in his thread he added tape along the edges to but the styrene up to so I followed this but, when gluing, to add a bit more to make sure the strip stayed in place, I held a ruler on the outside of the tape and then ran Tamiya Extra Thin cement along the join:



And from the outside:



A coat of primer tomorrow will show how good a job I've done...

[steinerman]

Looking good! This is a tricky part and it's hard to get it just right, but id really improves the look of the ship. You won't be disappointed in the results!